When did the legendary Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar break the NBA scoring record?
LeBron James is widely regarded as one of the best players to ever step foot on a basketball court. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar is currently in his 20th season in the NBA and boasts a career that any rookie would dream to have, having won four NBA Championships, four MVPs and having shattered plenty of records – however, one record kept eluding James in his career.
It was last season when LeBron became the only player in NBA history to rack up 10,000 points, rebounds and assists – and currently, in his 20th season, LeBron is in the top ten in both all-time charts for points and assists. While he is fourth on the all-time assists tally, he had his eyes firmly set on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s long standing record of most points scored in NBA history.
So when the Oklahoma City Thunder travelled to the Crypto.com Arena to face the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, all eyes were on LeBron James – who started the game only 36 points off Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s tally. It was in the final seconds of the third quarter when LeBron hit the Thunder with a fadeaway jumper for two points, and became the highest scorer in NBA history.
The moment meant that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was in attendance to watch James take an attempt at breaking his long-standing record of 38,387 career points in the NBA – got to his feet to applaud the extraordinary career of a generational athlete much like himself. It is possible that Abdul-Jabbar was reminiscent of how he broke the all-time scoring record all those years ago.
As it turns out, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar set the all-time NBA scoring record in 1984.
On April 5, 1984, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores the 31,420th point of his career, breaking the NBA’s all-time scoring record, which had been held by Wilt Chamberlain. Over 18,000 fans gathered at the Thomas and Mack Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to watch the Utah Jazz play the Los Angeles Lakers.
With less than nine minutes left in the game, Magic Johnson passed the ball to his teammate and Abdul-Jabbar scored his 22nd point of the night and 31,420th point of his career. Kareem retired five years later, with a scoring tally of 38,387 points which stood for a whopping 38 years.
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